On a dirt road in Equestria...
There were many dirt roads scattered around in Equestria. One of them was close to the capital, Canterlot and would lead to the east of Equestria. One Earth-Pony mare, wearing a saddle bag, was walking down the road to the west. Her coat was blonde and her mane light red, tied to a ponytail, and a similar looking tail. Her eyes were light pink and her Cutie Mark was a brown sack. Coincidentally, she was holding an identical looking sack in one of her hooves, wearing a happy smile on her face.
"I can't believe that it was so easy," the mare said happily as she threw the sack up a few times, catching it immediately after. "Well, it does serve that pony right. I mean why was he trusting me so easily? Not even the other two ponies managed to notice how I stole this. It's only natural that somepony would be cautious if a pony like me would suddenly come around and started a conversation," she said as she shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, one's misfortune is one's luck, right?"
She started to count the bits inside of the sack slowly while grinning widely. She clearly had no regret, considering that she robbed somepony and only laughed happily. Her only focus was now on the bits in her hooves. Though she soon focused her eyes on the road again after she spotted somepony walking in the same direction like her from behind on the road. A blue coated stallion wearing a purple armor. She instantly recognized this pony as a member of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard. Though she never saw a purple armor before. Still, she got very excited at this sight.
"Oooh! Looks like another victim that begs to get his wallet loosen up a bit. Today must be my lucky day!" She said excitedly before she put the sack of bits inside of her saddlebag. "Royal Guard Members are paid really well. I can probably get double the bits that I got from before!" She said happily, grinning widely and already imagining that she will make the big money. In fact, she already planned her approach and closed her eyes in order to think while she continued walking.
"I have been a fan of the Royal Guards for sooo long! What you guys do is so inspiring! You are the heroes of Equestria!" She practiced what to say to this guard, once he was close enough. "Yep! The innocent admirer tactic. Aaaand once his ego was fed like that and he looks away, his wallet will be mine!" She planned before she looked behind her on the road again.
Of course, the first thing she saw once she turned around, was that stallion, walking in her direction. However, he did seem to be a little closer than she expected. In fact, the pony kept coming closer really fast. Eventually, the mare figured out what was going on after taking a closer look. "Is he...running towards me?" She said confused.
He was running towards her. At full speed. His eyes were narrowed. His expression was serious. The mare saw that expression a lot of times now to understand what was going on.
"Oooooh..." she said after her realization. The next thing she did was turning around, running away as fast as she could in a panic. "This guy! He is trying to capture me!" She screamed in panic as she tried to run away from this guard. From time to time, she did look back to see how further away she was, only to realize that the pony was right on her tail, making her even more nervous. She figured that this pony, she stole from before, may have contacted the Royal Guards to look for her.
"Stop chasing me! I didn't steal anything!" She screamed toward the pony in hope that he would stop following her.
"So you are the thief!" The pony replied with a serious tone in his voice.
"Argh! Busted!" The mare then said in her frustration, figuring that she should have kept quiet.
The mare was an experienced thief. Running away was nothing new to her. Sooner or later, that pony would give up after he realized that he could catch up to her. Even if it would take some time.
Sooner or later...she kept telling herself...
But unfortunately for her, that moment didn't happen...
Later...
As much as she tried to run away from the stallion, the mare was captured in the end due to the loss of stamina that the stallion clearly had more than enough of. She was brought back to the pony that she stole that money from. Only this time, she was tied up so that she wouldn't do anything stupid again.
The stallion, in the meantime, was giving an elderly Earth-Pony his bits back who was standing next to a wooden cart. Two Earth-Pony stallions were waiting in front of it as well. They were most likely the ones who pulled the cart since the elderly farmer pony seemed a little too old to do the job on his own.
“Thank you very much,” the old farmer pony replied while repeatedly bowing in front of Fade out of gratitude. "Fade, was it? You saved me a lot of trouble," he added as he kept bowing to Fade out of thanks.
“It was nothing,” Fade replied modestly with an uncomfortable smile on his face, caused by the many "thanks" that the farmer pony gave him.
The elderly pony farmer was so thankful for the help of Fade that he even offered some bits as thanks. Of course, Fade did not accept it and stated that it was only natural for him to help somepony in need.
“I thought I would have lost the money that I need for my next visit to Filly Delphia. But then again, I expected nothing less from the Royal Guard of Princess Celestia,”
“I'm not really...” Fade started but then he stopped after realizing that it really was not this ponies business to know more about what happened recently.
But thankfully, this uncomfortable situation, from Fade's side, was interrupted by the captured mare. "Yes! We are all happy now and thankfully, nopony got hurt. So how about you let me finally go? I deeply regret stealing from this old pony," she said while she tried to make the most innocent face to fool Fade.
This was clearly an act. One that Fade saw through easily. "I'm not releasing you," he said while directly looking into her eyes with a bold expression on his face.
The mare got a little angry but behaved and just turned around and began sulking. Fade ignored that and kept talking with the farmer pony, who kept thanking him for his help.
"To come across a member of the Royal Guard at a time like this was truly a blessing," the farmer said. The more the word, Royal Guard was mentioned, the more Fade felt like telling him that he no longer is part of them because of the recent events. "Where are you heading to? I can take you along for a while," the pony offered as a thank for Fade's help.
The stallion considered to accept this offer. He needed to plan how things would go from this point on. Ponyville would have been a good start but the problem was, that it was a little too close to Canterlot. If he would try to hide there, then chances were high that he would come across some Royal Guards. Filly Delphia on the other hoof was a little further away, and since he was the Captain of the Royal Guards, he knew that rarely any guards were sent to this place. It would be a good start to head for this town for now.
"I...actually have some business in Filly Delphia so if it isn't too much trouble for you..."
The Farmer pony quickly cut Fade off. "Don't be ridiculous, it would be an honor. Though, I'm afraid that you have to get on the back of the cart with my wares,"
"That's no problem," Fade said before he dragged the mare with him on the back of the cart, much to her dislike who began to struggle a little. But it was nothing that Fade couldn't handle.
The two Earth Ponies in, in front of the cart began to pull the cart a few minutes after Fade and the mare went on it. They had to share some space with some vegetables but there was still enough room for both of them. Fade wasn't bothered by that and from the looks of it, the mare wasn't either. Even if she was, it seemed like she was way too busy glaring at Fade the whole time.
"Is something wrong?" Fade bluntly asked after noticing the stare that he was given to.
The mare kept glaring at him. "You know...nopony would notice if you let go now...All their backs are turned away from us so there is no reason for you to keep up all this knightly attitude up," she said, once again trying to somehow get released.
"I will not let you go," Fade replied, clearly not showing any signs that he was falling for this talk.
"And what do you intend to do with me? You can't just drag me around Equestria!" She complained before she widened her eyes after a rather abrupt realization. "Wait...is this your thing? Is this your way of asking out mares like that?" She then turned around and blushed. "I know I am quite a good catch but this is all too sudden. Even I think that it is necessary to go out to eat something first..."
Fade rolled his eyes. He was not sure if this was supposed to be some kind of act or if she was serious. Either way, Fade was not affected by this and replied accordingly. "I planned to bring you to the next town so that somepony could take care of you...so that I no longer have to," he bluntly explained.
"Meanie!" The mare replied after those words offended.
There was a rather long awkward pause after that. Not that there was much to talk about in the first place. A former Captain of the Royal Guard and a thief shared some space on a cart. There was not much common ground for them. Still, the mare decided to break the silence.
“Royal Guard, huh...no wonder that you wear this fancy armor...” she said as she inspected Fade further. "I don't think I ever saw a purple armor before. Are you special or something?" She asked, showing actual curiosity this time. Fade didn't say anything to that and hoped that her curiosity would die off quickly. But the mare would not let up so fast. "Come to think of it...why are you not bringing me to Canterlot? Isn't that were the Royal Guards are at? Why bringing me all the way to Filly Delphia? It's much further away," she said as she began to think for a moment.
Fade didn't like how quickly the mare was putting the pieces together. She was just some kind of thief so her finding out more about him would probably not be the biggest problem but in order to keep his head down from Princess Celestia and the Royal Guard, it would be safer if nopony would find out.
But it seemed to be too late for that. "I got it!" The mare almost shouted out after her realization. "The different colored armor! The reason why you are bringing me to Filly Delphia instead of Canterlot! It all makes sense now!" She said with a grin on her face as if she totally had figured out what was up with Fade. The stallion waited what exactly she found out and thought about what to do after that. "You are a new member!" She then added, much to Fade's surprise. "Yes! This armor is probably something that they give out for new recruits before they decided to give you the yellow one!" She then laughed a little. "And the reason why we are not returning to Canterlot is because you messed up big. You did some mistake that prevents you from returning so you are hiding until everypony forgets your mistake!"
It was impressive how the mare actually managed to come to this conclusion out on a whim. What was even more impressive was how half of what she said was actually right. Fade couldn't go back to Canterlot because of a mistake of some sort and he did intend to hide until things hopefully settled down.
"Something like that..." Fade replied. Of course, he couldn't just explain the details to her. Her guess was half right so he gave a rather vague answer that would hopefully make her stop thinking about this matter anymore and eventually, making her figure out the whole truth.
"Still!" The mare said annoyed. “Is it hammered down into your knight codex that “thou shall arrest every little criminal that walks upon thy way?” Or something like that?” She mockingly said.
“I'm not doing this because it was ordered but because I think it's the right thing to do,” Fade replied.
The mare didn't seem to be enjoying this conversation but she still kept it up. "What is right or wrong is often debatable. I'm a thief. So what? He is doing his work to earn some money and so do I. It just happens to be taking his money away. It's not like I am directly hurting anypony,” she said without a bother in her voice.
But Fade knew how to respond to that. “Just because you admit your dirty work, doesn't really make it sound better,”
The mare didn't seem to be bothered by those words and rolled her eyes. She clearly made no progress when it came to manipulating Fade to release her.
"There is something that I never understood about thieves..." Fade started, getting the mare to peel her ears after hearing the word "thief". "You seem to be smart and probably...skilled in certain areas. But instead of using those skills for something that could help other ponies, you decide to steal from them and make their lives harder,"
The mare did not seem to be affected by those words and shrugged her shoulders. "Some ponies are just destined to do what they are good at. I mean, just look at my Cutie Mark," she said before she tried to turn around a little to give Fade a look on her flank that showed a brown sack on it. "See that? I got this Cutie Mark after I stole some money from a pony for the first time and I never regretted it," she said almost proudly.
"So in other words, if I release you, you will keep continuing all this. You will continue to steal from other ponies," Fade said.
The mare didn't answer at first. Instead, she tried to turn the conversation around a bit. "As much as I love talking about me, how about we talk a little about you?"
"No," Fade instantly, replied bluntly.
The mare got angry and clenched her teeth. "Hey! Aren't you Royal Knight's supposed to be well mannered!? A lady answered your questions honestly and as soon as I want to ask questions you just say no!?" She exclaimed angrily as she jumped around the cart a little.
"I don't intend to answer your questions," Fade replied.
"But that's not fair!" The mare exclaimed.
"Well, I never said that I would tell you anything after you talked to me. I thought you were a professional thief. Shouldn't you have seen this coming?" Fade said in an almost smugly tone in his voice.
"Meanie!" The mare replied annoyed before she turned around angrily, making Fade face her back now. Talking with you is exhausting...” she said, finally giving up to get into a conversation that somehow ended up with her being free again.
Fade could have replied the exact same thing to her but he didn't.
"I think, now I am actually looking forward for you to drop me off in Filly Delphia," the mare added as she tried to make herself comfortable on the ground.
Fade looked at her with an emotionless expression on his face. He started to think why he bothered to even talk with her. Normally, a thief like her would not even make him wast his breath. But the thing was since he broke out of Canterlot's Dungeon, he hasn't talked with many ponies. Today was actually the first time he came across this farmer pony. He was probably happy that he could finally help somepony who was actually in some kind of trouble. It made him feel like as if he could still do good things, despite being probably hunted by the Royal Guard, right now.
Fade looked up at the sky and noticed that it began to get dark already. The farmer pony advised that he should get some sleep since it would probably take a little more time until they would arrive at Filly Delphia. After looking down again, he already noticed how the mare was trying to get some sleep.
He said that he would bring her to Filly Delphia so that she could be dealt with by the residents. However, when he said that, he was actually making that up on a whim. He tried to think why he did that in the first place. Maybe he needed someone to talk to so that he wouldn't go insane. Or maybe he wanted to keep her around because, in case he would lose control or anything, hurting a little thief was not too bad compared to innocent ponies who did nothing wrong. Whatever the reason was, there was one thing that he wanted to know before something like that happened.
"Hey. Are you already asleep?" Fade whispered.
The mare turned her head around and looked at Fade with her pink annoyed eyes. "Am I not even allowed to sleep now?" She asked annoyed.
Fade looked at her eyes and asked what he wanted to know. "What's your name?"
The mare seemed a little surprised and looked at Fade rather serious. "Really? You just now asking that? What does it matter if you know the name of a dirty thief like me?" She said before she turned her head around again, trying to get back to sleep.
Fade stayed quiet. It was true that he wasn't thinking too highly about her but right now, he realized that there was no reason for that. She was a prisoner for him. If he was still in the Royal Guard, he wouldn't even care. But he wasn't. He was nopony, right now. A pony who hurt his own men and escaped from prison because he was not ready to face the consequences. Because he still needed to find a way to get his daughter back.
But right now, he was no longer different than this thief in front of him. He was on his own now. And all he wanted was probably some company that would keep him from doing anything dangerous. No matter who it was, right now.
"My name is Fade," he said, introducing himself to the mare.
The mare did not reply at first. She attempted to turn her head around again but then decided not to. There was an awkward pause between the two of them for a while but the mare broke it and finally replied. "I'm Rosa," she introduced herself. "Nice to meet you," she added, though Fade didn't know if that was meant to be sarcastic or not.
Finally, Fade also decided to go to sleep. He began to close his eyes and hoped that he would not wake up with other Royal Guard members surrounding him or be in some sort of prison. However, trying to get to sleep was harder than expected on a moving cart so he decided until it got darker, in hope that this would help him to fall asleep.
In his boredom, his attention was then drawn towards the saddlebag that laid next to Rosa. He expected that there were other stolen things inside of it so he didn't look inside but now Rosa seemed to be asleep and Fade had to admit that he was a little curious to look inside. He grabbed the saddlebag and opened it. Thankfully, Rosa didn't seem to notice anything.
There was reasonable stuff inside of it, like food, bits, normal stuff that you need if you want to travel on your own, which was most likely what Rosa was doing. One object, however, stood out the most. It was a little red brooch in the form of a rose. Considering that thieves would usually steal money or sell their stuff to get money, it was a little surprising to see something this valuable in Rosa's bag.
Fade kept his eyes on this brooch but as soon as he saw some movement next to him, he immediately put it back inside. The movements came from Rosa. At first, Fade thought that she noticed how he was spying on her stuff but it turned out that she was still asleep and just turned around. Fade was relieved that he wasn't found out and went back to his corner.
But before he went back, he could hear Rosa whisper something in her sleep. One single word that kept him thinking for a second before he went to sleep himself.
"Mother..."
To be continued...